Correction, March 30: A previous version of this story mispelled Salma El Bissati’s name as “Salma El Basssiti.”

The debate team concluded its 2025-26 competition season with varsity and junior varsity state tournaments. Varsity state took place Feb. 28, where junior Ashton Seiler and senior Devdan Jeffery’s team scored 3-2; sophomores Michelle Tart and Brandon Coston-Criswell scored 2-3. JV’s state took place a week later, on March 7, where sophomores Salma El Bissati and Kai Lichtenbaum scored 3-2 in a five-round competition.  

According to Devdan, the captain, the team competed in 12 tournaments this season. He said that this year, the team had not been scoring as well as previous years due to an increase in sophomores who made a transition from the JV team to varsity. However, Devdan expressed that the sophomores have excelled in their transitions and performed with talent. 

“It’s pretty rough for them to get adjusted to a totally different speed of debate,” Devdan said. “There have been a lot of good moments, where some of the sophomores are having breakout success.”

Additionally, while debate is a partner activity, team cohesion plays a major role in developing and researching arguments, Devdan said. This year, he noticed an increasingly supportive team culture. 

“We tend to have a lot of fun at practice and at tournaments,” Devdan said, “joking around a lot, having fun with each other.”